$899 is a lot of money for a 64GB 10.6-inch tablet. It's $70 more even than the most expensive iPad—and that comes with 3G/LTE support and GPS. But that's the price Microsoft has set for the low-end Surface with Windows 8 Pro.

$1028 (to include a Type Cover keyboard; $1018 if you plump for the Touch Cover instead) isn't, however, a huge amount of money for a 64GB 10.6-inch Ultrabook with a 1920×1080 multitouch screen and stylus, all in a package that weighs about 2.5-2.6 pounds total and comes in at 20mm thick. Microsoft said Surface Pro would be priced like an Ultrabook, and it is.

Four to 4.5 hours of battery life is just plain lousy for a tablet—any tablet. Tablets are widely expected to have "all-day" battery life. That means eight hours at a minimum; ideally nine to 10.

On the other hand, four to 4.5 hours of battery life is not too bad for a $1028, almost-11-inch laptop. It's a little on the low end, perhaps—the 11-inch MacBook Air gets about five hours—but it's by no means horrible. The 1920×1080 screen, conversely, puts it at the higher end of the market. So too does the build quality and the digitizer/pen input.

Compared to any of the popular tablets—the various iPads, the Nexus 7, Amazon's range—the Surface Pro is absurdly overpriced and its battery life is pathetic. Compared to an Ultrabook, it's not that bad: a little ahead in some ways, a little behind in others.

The thing is, in spite of its pricing, the Surface Pro isn't an Ultrabook. The kickstand and the keyboard covers work pretty well if you're at a desk or a table, but they come with worst-in-class touchpads (they're netbook size and quality, rather than Ultrabook size and quality). That fixed screen orientation is also less usable when a desk of an appropriate height isn't available.

This makes Surface Pro an awkward sale. Buyers will inevitably compare Surface Pro to other devices on the market that look similar and appear to fit the same basic constraints—that means comparing to tablets, and this will be catastrophic. Microsoft needs to persuade buyers to regard Surface Pro as not another tablet but as more like an Ultrabook. But what an odd kind of Ultrabook it is.

Surface RT was difficult to categorize, and Surface Pro, if anything, exacerbates that difficulty. Surface RT is very similar to an iPad in terms of size, weight, and battery life, but it offers a little something more than a straight tablet: it has the keyboard covers, the desktop, and four of the Office applications. Although Surface RT calls itself a PC, the lack of software compatibility leaves it impossible to compare to the PCs that went before it.

Surface Pro, however, falls down hard in comparison to other tablets due to its weight, price, and battery life. It compares much more favorably to Ultrabooks, and yet its form factor is identical to that of Surface RT (just a little thicker and a bit heavier). It's shaped, sized, and built like a tablet, but you can't actually use it like a tablet. It's too heavy, and the battery will give out mid-way through your working day.

But those keyboard covers and desktop really come into their own on the Surface Pro, because it's running Windows 8 Pro on a fast x86 processor. As such, it will be compatible with virtually any Windows application you throw at it. Surface Pro is a PC. It doesn't look like a traditional PC and, with those touchpads, you might not want to use it as a traditional PC. But on the inside, that's what it is.

Surface RT offers a "tablet plus" experience. The value you ascribe the "plus" depends on the value you ascribe Office. If you need those capabilities, it's a huge bonus; if you don't, the Surface is a curious beast, wedding a competent touch user interface to a vestigial, anachronistic desktop.

But what is Surface Pro? It's not "tablet plus plus," taking the basic concept of the Surface RT and adding even more extra value. It compares too unfavorably with other tablets in a number of key areas. But equally, it's not the "PC plus" that Microsoft argues is the real future of the PC and tablet markets. Its PC capabilities and aspirations are undermined by being shoehorned into a tablet form factor.

The end result is a product that does a big chunk of what a tablet can do and a big chunk of what a PC can do, but it's not a perfect replacement for either. If Surface Pro is held up against conventional tablets, the result will be catastrophic, but the comparisons with Ultrabooks aren't clear-cut either.

The Surface Pro is not the only Windows 8 device that has been announced that makes this kind of compromise. A wide range of hybrids is either for sale now or will be soon. Just look to the Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro and the Asus Transformer Book (which wed fast CPU tablet units to dockable clamshell keyboards), or convertibles such as the Sony Duo 11 and Dell XPS 12 Duo (which use hinges and other mechanisms to hide their keyboards behind their screens). But none of these competing devices are as tablety as Surface Pro: they generally have hinges for flexible screen positioning. They're also generally thicker and heavier.

Surface Pro does have some direct precursors, but they're devices such as HP's Slate 500. They're the "Tablet PCs" that Microsoft has been trying to promote for the last ten years (with little success). Windows 8 certainly makes that kind of device better, but it remains unclear if there's any substantial demand for this style of machine. Little wonder, then, that the PC OEMs have opted for designs that work better as conventional laptops. This is not to mention the even more conventional designs—Ultrabooks equipped with touchscreens—that play it even safer, but which can boast an entirely uncompromised PC experience (and personally, this is the form factor that has me interested).

As such, Microsoft's challenge is not simply to ensure that people don't compare Surface Pro to other tablets and dismiss it out of hand. For Surface Pro to succeed, Microsoft needs to make a case that this third category of device—not quite a laptop, not quite a tablet, but a bit of both—not only exists in its own right, but that it's the best way of fulfilling your computing needs.

That's a message Microsoft has singularly failed to deliver for a decade now. But without it, Surface Pro is doomed to a series of comparisons in which it fares poorly: too expensive for a tablet, too limited for an Ultrabook, a flawed jack-of-all-trades going up against seasoned masters.

To put it simply, one you can actually get some work done on, and the other you have to bend over backwards, throw in a lot of excuses and hope to get some work done on.

The iPad succeeded, so of course that comparison is going to come up.

Had the iPad languished then there would be no consequences, the same way Tablet PCs have been failing to take the market by storm for over a decade now.

If you are talking just about success fair enough, but this is more of a "proper" comparison, and that's like comparing apples to laptops.

Well, put it this way; it takes less than $70 worth of parts for Apple to 'match' the Surface Pro's best features (keyboard, trackpad, cover) if they so wish, while the Pro has a huge struggle ahead of it to match the iPad's resolution and battery life.

Within a couple years they will both be competing directly (as Intel improves their battery life and Apple improves their performance) anyway.

I was interested in the Surface Pro, but what I have seen/heard so far doesn't paint it in a very positive light. I had hoped it would fulfill my desires for 2/3 laptop 1/3 tablet, as Mitlov put it, but it seems to be too much tablet and just not a good enough product in general.

I'm trying to divine the merits of the mentioned XPS 12 vs. Yoga - I'd love to see a comprehensive article on Ars about this ultrabook/tablet hybrid type of hardware.

Don't you think that Microsoft and Intel have been talking shop for a long time? Intel is coming up with the next gen Ivybridge, lower power consumption, more integration into the chip of things like WiFi in 2013. I recognized this the day Microsoft announced the Surface, they said 2013 for the Surface Pro, which is the timeline for Intel's upgrade path.

I think some pre reviewers will be eating a little crow come 2013 when they see the release specs, the better battery life, improved performance, integration of technologies on the WIntel platform.

Are you trying to say that the Surface Pro will run a Haswell chip? If so, you are very, very wrong.

Yah, it won't be until the next generation that has the Haswell chip. And I might well wait for that generation of CPU to make the jump to my tablet/PC hybrid.

Surface is looking more and more like a white elephant. I was really thinking that the "Pro" version would make a lot more sense than the "RT" version, but I just can't get over the fact that this is one product trying to be two things (a tablet and a laptop) and doing both poorly.

Now you know why ARM processors are chosen for tablets and phones. They're not kidding about Intel's power efficient processors being really power inefficient.

I'd rather have an ARM version that isn't disabled and hope that software makers will port their software to ARM. I think that's a lot more likely than a decent touch version anytime in the next five years.

What's the stylus like? I can imagine using this with creative suite if it's decent enough! Can't exactly take a Intuos 5 Large on the train while working on the next bit of client work but if I could do that straight onto the screen that would be pretty cool. Edit: a lot nice than using any touchpad to do this kind of work.

I do worry about Peter looking at this, especially after his views on the ars-technicast were widely accepted to be from someone who doesn't use a tablet in general nor seems to have any need for them. Hoping to see a more general review on the performance of the device for specific tasks to help make a purchasing decision.

As a newcomer to OneNote, I began to see possibilities for the Surface RT as an information collection device, and as a tool for project management. I don't need to do a lot of typing. When I do, the Surface cover does the job, as does any wireless keyboard/mouse I might have handy. Add a portable scanner, like a Neat document scanner, to the backpack with it, and I can create mixed-media document collections in OneNote on the fly, wherever I am.

Unfortunately, Surface RT won't work with scanners, and compatible USB 3G/4G dongles are all but nonexistent. The lack of VBA in Office RT means my line-of-business Excel documents are a no-show.

These problems are solved by Surface Pro, so, I'm willing to wait to give it a shot. I've been waiting and waiting for a tablet that can do content creation. I also can't wait to see how the digitizer screen will interact with Adobe apps. I know it's no Wacom tablet, but I can hope, can't I?

To put it simply, one you can actually get some work done on, and the other you have to bend over backwards, throw in a lot of excuses and hope to get some work done on.

The iPad succeeded, so of course that comparison is going to come up.

Had the iPad languished then there would be no consequences, the same way Tablet PCs have been failing to take the market by storm for over a decade now.

If you are talking just about success fair enough, but this is more of a "proper" comparison, and that's like comparing apples to laptops.

Well, put it this way; it takes less than $70 worth of parts for Apple to 'match' the Surface Pro's best features (keyboard, trackpad, cover) if they so wish, while the Pro has a huge struggle ahead of it to match the iPad's resolution and battery life.

Within a couple years they will both be competing directly (as Intel improves their battery life and Apple improves their performance) anyway.

Can you run MS Office on an iPad? Is the iPad like dealing with any other PC in an AD environment? Nope, it's not. You can slap a keyboard on an iPad but it's not going to make it a direct competitor of the Surface Pro.

I think MS should have designed the Pro Surface with a larger display. Give it 15" or 17" so you actually can (and *want* to) use it as a small and stylish all-in-one touchscreen PC you can also take with you in a pinch and use as a large tablet. At the current size it's too easily compared to an iPad and then it just falls short. It's a bad tablet, it's an awkward ultrabook and a much too small desktop computer rolled into one.

Windows 8 is not that bad (and MS had to do something here anyway), but the Surface just proves that there's a total lack of understanding what people actually want to do with a PC.

Really, with MS Office coming to Android and iOS next year, I would love to see more devices like that ViewSonic Android PC. MS is clinging to its former PC monopoly while more and more people have escaped from that jail without actually noticing it. Those who still need a laptop or PC running Windows will be happily using laptops and PCs running Windows while those who just need a browser and email and some apps have been doing exactly that with Android and iOS long enough to just not care at all for Windows anymore.

899 is a lot of money for a 64GB 10.6-inch tablet. It's $70 more even than the most expensive iPad—and that comes with 3G/LTE support and GPS. But that's the price Microsoft has set for the low-end Surface with Windows 8 Pro.

And with that false equivalency, I stopped reading.

It's not a false equivalency at all.

Say you have $900 to spend on a tablet. You shop around.

What can you get, bang for the buck?

If you get the Surface Pro, you get 4 hours battery life and 1080p.If you get the iPad you get 12 hours battery life, astounding 2048x1536 resolution, a good 2/3 pound lighter, LTE wireless speeds, a better GPU, and GPS.

Surface is looking more and more like a white elephant. I was really thinking that the "Pro" version would make a lot more sense than the "RT" version, but I just can't get over the fact that this is one product trying to be two things (a tablet and a laptop) and doing both poorly.

Now you know why ARM processors are chosen for tablets and phones. They're not kidding about Intel's power efficient processors being really power inefficient.

Intel's low power processors are Medfield and Clover Trail (Atom branded; the former in smartphones, the latter in tablets) and they're a good match for the ARM processors being used in tablets and phones, actually.

I was interested in the Surface Pro, but what I have seen/heard so far doesn't paint it in a very positive light. I had hoped it would fulfill my desires for 2/3 laptop 1/3 tablet, as Mitlov put it, but it seems to be too much tablet and just not a good enough product in general.

I'm trying to divine the merits of the mentioned XPS 12 vs. Yoga - I'd love to see a comprehensive article on Ars about this ultrabook/tablet hybrid type of hardware.

They did a review on the Yoga.

I got one myself to try, but wound up returning it. It had too many compromises, from trying to be too many things. I'm going to try a Surface Pro, because I believe it will fit my workflow better.

What's the stylus like? I can imagine using this with creative suite if it's decent enough! Can't exactly take a Intuos 5 Large on the train while working on the next bit of client work but if I could do that straight onto the screen that would be pretty cool. Edit: a lot nice than using any touchpad to do this kind of work.

I do worry about Peter looking at this, especially after his views on the ars-technicast were widely accepted to be from someone who doesn't use a tablet in general nor seems to have any need for them. Hoping to see a more general review on the performance of the device for specific tasks to help make a purchasing decision.

It'll perform as well as any other Windows machine with the same CPU. There's a bunch of 'em. The only thing it brings is the form factor, and I don't think the form factor is all that hot.

I was interested in the Surface Pro, but what I have seen/heard so far doesn't paint it in a very positive light. I had hoped it would fulfill my desires for 2/3 laptop 1/3 tablet, as Mitlov put it, but it seems to be too much tablet and just not a good enough product in general.

I'm trying to divine the merits of the mentioned XPS 12 vs. Yoga - I'd love to see a comprehensive article on Ars about this ultrabook/tablet hybrid type of hardware.

They did a review on the Yoga.

I got one myself to try, but wound up returning it. It had too many compromises, from trying to be too many things. I'm going to try a Surface Pro, because I believe it will fit my workflow better.

I find that interesting, because Surface Pro strikes me as a great deal more compromised. The Yoga does at least function as a regular laptop. The Surface design doesn't seem to really crack either role.

If you get the Surface Pro, you get 4 hours battery life and 1080p.If you get the iPad you get 12 hours battery life, astounding 2048x1536 resolution, a good 2/3 pound lighter, LTE wireless speeds, a better GPU, and GPS.

Can you run MS Office on an iPad? Is the iPad like dealing with any other PC in an AD environment? Nope, it's not. You can slap a keyboard on an iPad but it's not going to make it a direct competitor of the Surface Pro.

You're missing the forest for the trees. The point isn't to run MS Office on a tablet or a mobile device. The point is to be decently productive with MS Office while on the go. And for this, any MBA-class ultrabook beats the pants off the Surface Pro. Sure, an ultrabook doesn't double as a tablet, but business users are more concerned about getting their work done in 1/3 of the time by using a pointing device that doesn't suck panda balls. And yes, the pointing device is necessary because Office still isn't optimized for touch input.

If you get the Surface Pro, you get 4 hours battery life and 1080p.If you get the iPad you get 12 hours battery life, astounding 2048x1536 resolution, a good 2/3 pound lighter, LTE wireless speeds, a better GPU, and GPS.

You, on the flip, lose out on CPU performance.

It's not just a question of CPU performance, but what sort of software you can run. The Surface Pro can run x86 software. If it runs on a Windows desktop, it runs on the Surface Pro. You'll need the stylus for controlling menus in Windows on a 10" device (unless you have needle fingers like the Bad Mother from Coraline), but still, it can be done. It can't be done on an iPad.

This isn't an iPad competitor so much as a touchscreen MacBook Air 11. There's a very big hardware difference.

I agree that what this really needs is a Haswell or, even better, a Broadwell, chip.

Intel has insisted on keeping Atom as a second-rate (fourth-rate?) part, so it's really up to their main CPU line to get down into the low-power regime. According to this Anandtech article ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/6355/inte ... chitecture ), we should start seeing this with Haswell. But it is typically with the next die shrink that the Intel has managed the larger power savings, so I think that Broadwell should show better improvements.

So give it one to two years. Too bad for Microsoft that they couldn't wait. At least the slew of other hybrids may help pave the way for better Surface Pro models for when the Haswell arrives.

That, and, Microsoft, please give it a thunderbolt port so we can have flexibility in choosing docking stations.

899 is a lot of money for a 64GB 10.6-inch tablet. It's $70 more even than the most expensive iPad—and that comes with 3G/LTE support and GPS. But that's the price Microsoft has set for the low-end Surface with Windows 8 Pro.

And with that false equivalency, I stopped reading.

It's not a false equivalency at all.

Say you have $900 to spend on a tablet. You shop around.

What can you get, bang for the buck?

If you get the Surface Pro, you get 4 hours battery life and 1080p.If you get the iPad you get 12 hours battery life, astounding 2048x1536 resolution, a good 2/3 pound lighter, LTE wireless speeds, a better GPU, and GPS.

You, on the flip, lose out on CPU performance.

An iPad customer and a Surface Pro customer probably want their devices for completely different reasons. If someone wanted an iPad, they probably already have one and will continue to buy them because it fits their needs. The Surface Pro is trying to offer something different.

I guess I'd almost compare it to the first iPad or iPhone even. They were missing features, they had problems and really weren't what the iPad is today. The Surface Pro will just get better with each revision - same as the iPad did.

Looks good and should be flexible enough for users to be happy with in their own time (tablet features, etc.)

This is the first comment where I see a positive description of why somebody would want this combination of formfactor, software and hardware.

“…flexible enough for users to be happy with in their own time…” But somehow, I don't quite understand WHY a company would provision users with something less capable, less well-tuned to work, only so the limited storage could be filled up with personal music and videos.

Ultrabooks (well, actually, all the MacBook Airs that I see all the hipsters use in cafes, but I'll assume that Dell's or HP's offerings are not too dissimilar) have first-class keyboards & trackpads, and as the article says, get pretty damn good life. People buy them (usually with their own funds) because they're a delight to use. No review I've seen of the Surface typing and trackpads says anything of the sort.

And *MY* company's IT Department would watch Hell freeze over before allowing me access from a company machine, to any site, such as Facebook, Twitter or even scribd, which is sharing/socially oriented. Assuming they would encourage me to depreciate/risk the thing by emphasizing non-work usage at all. So I suspect the “bonus plus” of the “desktop plus” doesn't count for much in the sorts of organizations where Windows and Active Directory compatibility is most important.

Finally, it bears repeating: I took a cardboard mockup of the Surface on some recent flights, and found the kickstand/keyboard arrangement barely usable in an “economy plus” seat when the row ahead wasn't reclined (barely in that the kickstand was at the edge of the lip-less tray table) and NOT stable on even the first class trays that Delta uses, due to the fold that produces a non-flat surface. If this model is not designed for Road Warriors, the likely usage pattern is even further restricted.

I understand the usage scenarios for home iPads and special-purpose work iPads (neither are for me, however), and couldn't get along without my personal 17" laptop or be productive without my 4-monitor Win7 desktop. I just don't see how the Surface is going to delight any except the Microsoft-centric technologist.

Good point: we are probably heading to a big gulf in price, weight, and use-cases between- 7” to 8", sub-pound ARM devices that can be comfortably held in one hand like iPad Minis and the better selling of the Android tablets- far bigger, heavier Windows-on-Intel and Mac OS devicesThe Surface (Non-pro) and iPad (non-Mini) might be obsolescent already.

I am a heavy desktop user. At home and at two offices at two work places I have top of the line desktops. Two days a week I travel between 2 cities on train. I need something on the road that can run full Windows. I wand to run MATLAB simulations on the spot when a new idea comes up. I want to read technical PDF documents (i.e. text with formulas, tables, everything. Not just pure text). I want to use Word and Visio. I use OneNote to take notes at the meetings as well as at home, while reading. At night in the hotel I'd like to have something light to browse the web.

Surface Pro fits what I need perfectly. It is a full PC so I can run MATLAB, R or Visual Studio on it if I need to.I can also can RDP to my office machines and, use a keyboard and get the job done. Using the stylus to write notes on OneNote is ideal for me. Large screen to read PDFs is great. Browsing the web with a touch interface during leisure time is an added bonus. All in all, I feel for me Surface Pro fits the bill perfectly. I just hope I can replace the internal SSD with something bigger, 256 GB would be much better. Oh, and 8 GB of RAM would be nice.

The only major thing that I wish Surface Pro had is Thunderbird. For such a device that would make perfect sense. Anyway, few years ago I paid over $2000 to buy an HP TabletPC and was generally happy with it till now. Now I can upgrade to something much faster, much cheaper, much lighter and with a generally much better build quality. I don't know about you guys but this device is the one for me.

I'm just curious was anyone really expecting this to run full x86 programs, come with a stylus, 1080p screen, and still have the battery life and weight of an iPad ? No because thats impossible, and this article was written as if Microsoft just didn't try hard enough. I see the Surface Pro as innovative and daring, and many people want it. Microsoft could have waited for the technology to make this device more reasonable, but instead took a leap and tried it anyway. If it is a success than Microsoft just made the industry that much interesting.

This remind of how most tech journalist dismissed the Galaxy Note when it was first released. Even after the success of the Note and now the Note 2 they haven't realized that sometimes products that look unimpressive or out of place in the big picture could be the best device for a small, but large enough group of people. Should companies only release products that compete directly with Apple ?

The keyboard which you can remove if you want to use it as a tablet. You can also put the iPad in a case with integrated keyboard but you wouldn't refer to the total as the iPad's weight. That's totally invalid. Also the first time I've downvoted you.

"But that's the price Microsoft has set for the low-end Surface with Windows 8 Pro."

I wouldn't describe the 64 Gb Surface Pro as the low-end Surface. Surface RT is the low-end Surface. The 64 Gb is second from the top of the Surface line. I don't think 64 Gb is big enough, but let's be fair here.

All design is compromises. My current 17" laptop is a compromise between a laptop portability and desktop screen size. It's not a particularly great compromise either.

It's clear that the particular set of compromises made here are appealing to a part of the market, and not appealing to other parts of the market. It will be interesting to see how big that part will be. I'm not willing to write off a particular form factor simply because it is not the form factor for everyone. Choice is good.

With a slate pc you need to use it for a week (and nothing else) before you know if your going to love or hate it.

Doesn't work so well if you are at a desk all the time, but if you are on the go, onsite, onsite meetings, commuting, they work very well. Work very well in confined spaces, for maintenance docs/manuals in workshops and on ships.

Get a few people to review them including Aurich (so he can test the digitiser and compare it to the wacom tablets)

I think quite a few are going to be grabbed instead of other slate pc's as these are a good bit cheaper and lighter.

To everyone comparing this to the ipad , please show me an ipad than can run autocad, solidworks, eagle or altium, xilinx , adobe creative suite and matlab. And run jtag debuggers/programmers/engine diagnostics/ecu programmers

It IS and always has been a Tablet PC (in the TRUEST use of the term).Those comparing it to the iPad or Android tablets are naive and don't know what they're talking about.

The best device to compare the Surface Pro to is the Lenovo Yoga. It's very comparable in BOTH price and specs. The Surface Pro just trades decreased battery life for a slimier form-factor (which makes sense for any rational person who understands that batteries take space, and doesn't irrationally expect miracles like a fully capable PCs that farts rainbows and unicorns).

"Surface Pro is doomed to a series of comparisons in which it fares poorly: too expensive for a tablet, too limited for an Ultrabook, a flawed jack-of-all-trades going up against seasoned masters."

This was pretty much obvious since the product was demoed. They will sell a number initially due to novelty and massive advertising campaign (I am so sick of that click on keyboard commercial), but in the end we are back to the same problem:

Poor user experience in nearly every use case. This is simply the wrong form factor for nearly any activity.

As I said in the Lenova Yoga review comments. Uncompromisable laptop first is a more appropriate form factor for an Intel Ivy machine.

IMO the HW form factors for CPUs with Win8/RT should breakdown like this:

Intel Performance CPU (Ivy, Haswell):

Laptop first designs like the Lenovo Yogo. Make sure you make no compromises from a full laptop. 12"+ for full keyboard spacing and screens fully supported by the keyboard so you can actually type in your lap, more like convertibles with permanent keyboard better balance. No negatives compared to an ultrabook, tablet use is an afterthought.

Intel Power Saver SoC (Atom):

This is the 10" class tablet that may try some secondary duty as a mini laptop with detachable keyboards. But weight/battery life are comparable to ARM 10" tablets. IMO this is what Surface should have been.

ARM Soc:

Here I would relegate WinRT machines to being pure Metro machines to compete with iPad min/Nexus 7/Kindle Fire. No keyboard, no desktop mode and a lower license fee to be more price competetive. I expect this may be the largest selling tablet segment going forward and MS still doesn't have a product.

It's also WAY too much of the handbaggage weight allowance on modern (godforsaken yes, but nevertheless the way the world is going) budget airlines. I take a tablet with me instead of the laptop because it helps me avoid the cost and hassle of hold baggage. If the tablet weighs as much as a laptop I may as well take the real thing.

I was interested in the Surface Pro, but what I have seen/heard so far doesn't paint it in a very positive light. I had hoped it would fulfill my desires for 2/3 laptop 1/3 tablet, as Mitlov put it, but it seems to be too much tablet and just not a good enough product in general.

I'm trying to divine the merits of the mentioned XPS 12 vs. Yoga - I'd love to see a comprehensive article on Ars about this ultrabook/tablet hybrid type of hardware.

They did a review on the Yoga.

I got one myself to try, but wound up returning it. It had too many compromises, from trying to be too many things. I'm going to try a Surface Pro, because I believe it will fit my workflow better.

I find that interesting, because Surface Pro strikes me as a great deal more compromised.

Maybe I'm a little weird, but I think the ModBook is an awesome product. What else is on the market like it? Potentially, the Surface Pro, for 1/4 of the price.

I wish Microsoft had said more about the digitizer in the press release. or if the pen is pressure sensitive in any way, or if a third-party pen might be. (Since Win8 Pro has full driver support, I reckon it's possible?) The screen alone makes the Surface Pro really, really interesting. Content creation, liberated from the desktop, might be the Surface Pro's killer app, to use an old phrase.

Can you run MS Office on an iPad? Is the iPad like dealing with any other PC in an AD environment? Nope, it's not. You can slap a keyboard on an iPad but it's not going to make it a direct competitor of the Surface Pro.

You're missing the forest for the trees. The point isn't to run MS Office on a tablet or a mobile device. The point is to be decently productive with MS Office while on the go. And for this, any MBA-class ultrabook beats the pants off the Surface Pro. Sure, an ultrabook doesn't double as a tablet, but business users are more concerned about getting their work done in 1/3 of the time by using a pointing device that doesn't suck panda balls. And yes, the pointing device is necessary because Office still isn't optimized for touch input.

You do know the Surface Pro has bluetooth and will support a mouse right? You're missing the forest for the trees yourself. As a business traveler the Surface Pro has the potential to be awesome. When sitting on a cramped plane - I don't want to have to open up a laptop to watch a movie or read a book. I don't want to carry two devices like a laptop and tablet/ereader. When on the road teaching someone to use equipment something like the Surface Pro would be great because I can use it to refer to my notes, I can actually use it as the training sign in sheet and stuff like that. When I get back to my hotel at night I can use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and use it as a laptop - VPN into my office, use MS Office and proprietary software, etc. There's all kinds of ways the Surface Pro can be used effectively and be more versatile than an Ultrabook.

I don't think the Surface Pro is a necessarily right for everyone but it definitely has it's place.

I'm still considering one. It would replace my iPad and my laptop so the cost is fine. I just want the software library of a non-mobile OS, portabiity of a tablet/netbook, and digital inking. Looks good to me. Desktop will handle the heavy lifting either way.

I feel exactly the same way. I have a Surface RT and to be honest, I haven't pulled out my old laptop since I have had the Surface (I'm a day-one buyer, so that's jus over a month now)... So, the RT has gone even further than I thought it would for me. The pro version would just mean I use my desktop a little bit less than I do now. To me, that's a win.

I wish Microsoft had said more about the digitizer in the press release. or if the pen is pressure sensitive in any way, or if a third-party pen might be. (Since Win8 Pro has full driver support, I reckon it's possible?) The screen alone makes the Surface Pro really, really interesting. Content creation, liberated from the desktop, might be the Surface Pro's killer app, to use an old phrase.

It is an active digitizer, not simply a capacitive stylus. We don't know yet whether it's Wacom, N-Trig, or something else. Digitizers are pretty common with Windows 8. The Duo 11 has N-Trig; the Samsung Ativ Smart PC (regular and Pro) have Wacom, as does the Thinkpad Tablet 2, Dell Latitude 10, and a few others I'm forgetting.

I can see this used in the office. Lots of people walking around with clunky laptops already. Lighter weight, a touch screen and pen input would really help. Some of them walked around with an ipad for a while, but that didn't really stick.

Then again, a thin clovertrail yoga-like laptop, or hybrid like the Asus Vivo would be even more suited in the office. You don't need Core processors for word and excel and clovertrail would last longer on a charge.

I really, really want to ditch Android for a Windows Phone and a Windows Tablet.

On the phone front lack of Swype and anemic phone offerings on Verizon have me staying with Android. (16gb of storage with no ability to expand on Verizon's "top of the line" Windows phone...are you kidding me? Though, they did the same thing with their Droid DNA so...)

The Surface had me even more excited. I hate the uselessness of my Android tablet. If I want to "do" something productive I have to run over to my desktop or go grab my monstrous laptop. The Surface appealed on that front and to the idea the I could run regular old Windows apps on it. I'm so sick of things being displayed in a "mobile" browser and lacking desktop features. Or being on YouTube and being told the video isn't available "on mobile". I'm not "mobile". I'm laying in my GD bed why do I have to walk over to my stupid desktop to view this video.

I've used the Surface for a few hours in an MS Store. It's a great little device. Fast and great for typing. The keyboard is actually phenomenally ergonomic. No pressure keys were actually the hallmark of an ergonomic keyboard and mouse company that Apple bought and destroyed a few years ago to get multitouch patents. They made keyboards very similar to the keyboard on the Surface that were about as good as they get ergonomically. Apple took all of their products off the market and there hasn't been much since.

The problem is price. I borrowed my girlfriend's Acer netbook that runs full Windows 7 (Office, Photoshop, Spotify Desktop, Desktop Chrome/Firefox, AND DROPBOX) for a Europe trip and the battery life was about 7-8 hours and it had a keyboard and it was $350. This is all the functionality I want from a Surface. Why is the Surface 3x-4x more expensive? Who in their right mind wants the non-existent app market and inability to use regular old Windows apps? For $600. For $1000, I'll take a Yoga or another Ultrabook.

Don't you think that Microsoft and Intel have been talking shop for a long time? Intel is coming up with the next gen Ivybridge, lower power consumption, more integration into the chip of things like WiFi in 2013. I recognized this the day Microsoft announced the Surface, they said 2013 for the Surface Pro, which is the timeline for Intel's upgrade path.

I think some pre reviewers will be eating a little crow come 2013 when they see the release specs, the better battery life, improved performance, integration of technologies on the WIntel platform.

And what is going to stop the dominant iPad from also using the same technology?

Or the still growing Android tablets? It's not like either Apple, Google, Samsung, et al, are allergic to Intel.

One simple thing that puts MS at advantage: They have long experience on x86 with their OS.

Apple has shipped Mac OS X on x86 since 2005, had working x86 code since 1997, and had shipped NeXTStep on x86 since 1993.

To put that in perspective, ARM has only been supported since about 2006 with the development of the iPhone.

Apple wrote their mobile OS on x86, and the default for iOS Apps is to be compiled and tested on x86. I don't think that counts as 'lack of extensive experience' at all.

Quote:

No doubt they could do it, but I doubt they could pull off the performance and battery life and stability a Windows device will have on their freshman efforts.

Excepting it's not freshman, and that OS X gets stellar battery life on x86, and similarly iOS gets stellar battery life on ARM, I don't think Apple has anything to worry about.

Given that Apple's been working on their mobile efforts for the better part of 6 years now, I suspect if anyone is a 'freshman effort', it is Microsoft.

I get where you're coming from, but all you're showing me is "kind-of similar" cases. Simply put, Microsoft is the software OS vendor out there that has the real-world experience of their OS on mobile x86 devices. Apple's iOS only has its big brother OSX to work against. Which is a nice leg up, but not the same.

Again, I'm not saying Microsoft is living in an exclusive world, I'm just saying they have a very real head start in the mobile x86 space.